Three members of staff who have each given more than 30 years’ service to the DoubleTree by Hilton Bristol City Centre have been recognised for their commitment. Senior Directors from Focus Hotels, which manages DoubleTree by Hilton Bristol City Centre visited the trio to mark their milestone and thank them for more than three decades of hard work.
Through a combination of both Brexit and the pandemic, the hospitality sector has struggled to recruit staff, one reason being that the sector is not always considered as a long-term career option, especially among more people. It is often seen as a ‘stop-gap’ while people are deciding what career they do want to follow. However Focus Hotels Management Ltd is proving that people can enjoy long and satisfying careers in the sector.
Tracey Walter, Rebecca Harris, and Christopher Odey were centre-stage at a presentation to mark 30 years each, but they are not alone – ten members of the DoubleTree by Hilton Bristol City Centre team have, between them, more than 200 years of experience there!
Devin Grosse, CEO of Focus Hotels, said: “We are proud to have operated DoubleTree by Hilton Bristol City Centre for over ten years and during this decade, we have demonstrated a commitment to addressing environmental and social issues, as well as embracing sustainable business practices.
“We are particularly proud of the hotel’s team, who are at the heart of everything that matters. People rarely spend thirty years or more in a profession they are not passionate about. They are equally passionate about their local environment and have already made a significant impact towards fulfilling this year’s social care promises. In fact, the team have an active ‘care’ committee (Creating a Rewarding Experience). They have already raised £4,200 this year for their chosen local charity, Bristol Autism Support, some £2,200 of which was raised by 11 of them running the recent Bristol 10k.”
DoubleTree by Hilton Bristol City Centre is one Bristol’s largest hotels, with 206 bedrooms and 17 meeting rooms, with a total capacity of over 500.
Grosse added: “Thanks to the quality of its rooms and facilities, the service levels and its central location, the DoubleTree is a beacon of hospitality and hope – and has been for more than 50 years, having celebrated its half century in April 2023. The hotel was delighted that Her Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant of the County and City of Bristol, Peaches Golding OBE, attended the birthday celebration – even using her ceremonial sword to cut the cake!”
Environmental issues are a key focus for the management company, who utilise software to calculate and analyse their sustainability performance. Working closely with the owners – with careful investment through a combination of BMS upgrades, metering, performance monitoring, heat pump upgrades, hot water degasification and solar panel installation – they are looking to achieve net zero alignment within the next ten years.
Early in 2021, the hotel also became one of Hilton’s first EventReady Hybrid Solutions properties for meetings and events, as Focus recognised that the business is able to leverage technology to their advantage, meeting a demand for hybrid meetings that was created through the pandemic-enforced lockdowns. This involves having the required infrastructure and technology to deliver a high-quality online event.
Grosse said: “We’re very proud to have a hotel with such a rich history, and which is such a prominent player in its local hospitality scene, as part of the Focus family. Over the past 50 years, this hotel has welcomed some extremely famous faces, including Princess Diana, Muhammad Ali, and Margaret Thatcher, however this hotel doesn’t rest on its laurels and look back; it is very much about looking forwards.
“Ultimately, we are all about people, and, as a hotel, you don’t get to enjoy 50 years of success in this competitive industry without ensuring you’ve got passionate people at the heart of the business. The hospitality sector has a large, quite transient, workforce, so when you learn that ten staff members have more than 200 years of service between them, you know that the hotel, as an employer, must be doing something right. And if the team is happy and motivated, then that reflects on the service they provide to our guests, and that is what is at the heart of the DoubleTree’s success. Here’s to the next fifty years“.
For more about DoubleTree Hilton Bristol, visit DoubleTree by Hilton Bristol City Centre.
(Photo shows, left-to-right: Stephen Cresswell, Focus Hotel Operations Director, Adam Flint, Hotel General Manager, long-serving staff members Christopher Odey, Rebecca Harris, Tracey Walter, and Devin Grosse, Chief Executive Officer of Focus Hotels Management Ltd).
